You may have noticed quite a bit of lag on the listings page, with plenty of pending and even unlisted applicants. Are we simply being too conservative? Or is the process really that hard?
We wouldn't agree with either statement, and would instead point to the fact that most of our listings are early stage. It starts out as an enquiry and hopefully leads an accelerated opportunity, but I digress.
The primary drag on an automated solution is risk. Risk of error to be precise. Our view is that self assessment is a painful process that can only be automated for the points assessment, well at least for now. That's a 'matter of opinion', though it's much less debatable than the principals test.
Make no mistake, we aren't dissing the option, though we must warn those who are under-prepared. We've already seen some examples, that would come unwound in an ATO audit.
Don't believe it? Consider the attached second page of the draft ATO flowchart...
So where too from here?
Records records and more records, and I'm not talking about music. If you are seriously considering claiming on principal you are really in the record creation phase, innovation assessment, business plans, commercialisation strategy, leverage assessment, competition analysis, demonstrated evidence etc.
Need another option, other than the points assessment? We would recommend putting similar work into the Commercialisation Australia grant, R&D or an Accelerator application. Better yet combine all 3 and set in motion you strategy (noting that 'all leave has been cancelled'),
No one said it was going to be easy!
Cheers, Tom